Today in the European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee the S&D Group secured wide support for the 2016 assessment report on Turkey. The Socialists and Democrats reiterated that Turkey’s constitutional-reform package voted in a referendum earlier this year is not in line with the Copenhagen criteria and called on EU member states to officially suspend accession talks with Turkey if the constitutional amendments are implemented without changes. The vote in the plenary will take place on 6 July.

S&D MEP Kati Piri, the European Parliament’s lead negotiator on Turkey, said:

“The continuation of the state of emergency has disproportionate negative effects on Turkish society and the arbitrary arrest of thousands of citizens, including parliamentarians and mayors, is of utmost concern to us.

“The S&D Group has always been a fierce supporter of Turkey’s accession process. However, it’s clear that the proposed constitutional-reform package is not in line with the EU membership criteria.

“Therefore, the report adopted today calls for the formal suspension of the accession talks if the constitutional amendments are implemented unchanged. We expect the Turkish government to take the Venice Commission recommendations seriously, as well as the fact that half the Turkish population voted against the changes in the referendum.”